


Repetition

by giraffles



Series: What I'm Trying To Say [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Gen, I SHIP WHAT I WANT, M/M, Off-screen Relationship(s), Slow Build, bullshiting science majors, ciNNAMON BUNS, dumb blond nerds, gratuitous amount of gaming, gratuitous use of curse words, more tringhams pls, oh my god what am I doing, sorta - Freeform, trashfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-03-22 19:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3740863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giraffles/pseuds/giraffles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>'Tell me that you want to move me 'round like that</i>
  <br/>
  <i>I will watch your lips curve in a smooth combat'</i>
</p><p> </p><p>A college AU where two science majors compete to be the biggest jerks in the class. And then become a joint terror on the universe. Or something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Mundaati and cynicalsleeper for being A+ people who encouraged me to keep working on it. c: 
> 
> also 'nerd' is used here in the most loving of ways.

The desktop purred as he booted it up. It had cost more pay checks than he would like to admit, a culmination of too many grueling hours as a barista for hipsters, but it was worth every goddamn penny. He’d put it together himself, piecemeal, and he had let Rose paint the case before final assembly. She’d covered it in badass swirling dragons and silver flames etched into the sides. Al thought it was tacky. Rose put pictures in her art portfolio. Ed loved the shit out of it.

The summers between semesters where dualities of salvation and suckage. He worked during the hot days to serve iced coffee to spoiled little shits from the city. The scholarships would only cover so much, and he had been the brilliant masochist who had decided he needed to go back for a second degree. At least the nights and his days off where his to waste on hours of MMOs.

      “Have you started yet?” Al’s voice called from downstairs.

      “Not yet!” there were a few moments to spare between the game client and Skype loading up. “What do you need?”

      “Tell Winry I’m good for next weekend!”

      “Why don’t you tell her yourself!”

      “Because you’ll be talking to her anyway!” Well, he wasn’t wrong. She was already requesting a call. “And I’m making cookies!”

If baked goods where involved then he supposed he could play messanger boy. “You’d better be bringing me some!”

Al was yelling something about him getting fat if he continued to live only on energy drinks and microwave meals. He ignored him in favor of picking up Winry’s Skype.

      “Hey, Win.”

      “Hey yourself, nerd.” As if she was any better than him. “Don’t you head back to school soon?”

      “Next week.” He coaxed Diablo 3 into loading. “Al says he’ll come over next weekend—“

She squealed and he had to half rip off his headphones to avoid going deaf. “Fantastic! What about you?”

      “Nah, I have a shift Saturday.”

      “Aww, I wanted to see _both_ of you.”

Ed made a face at the screen and was glad it was voice only. “Getting time off is a bitch.”

      “I know,” he could hear her pout, “But we miss you too.”

Of course he’d like to visit every other weekend and mooch off Granny’s cooking and roll around in the yard with the dog, like he didn’t have bills to pay and papers to stress over. But he’d overloaded on classes just because he seemed to hate himself. “Yeah, but someone has to take care of the cats.”

She laughed. “They’re _cats_.”

      “Have you seen what those little shits get into? They’re like toddlers. But worse.”

A notification pinged on the game’s home screen. He accepted her party invite. “I’m ready when you are.”

His wizard character was purposely under leveled and specifically geared to be a glass canon. He liked the challenge. That, and with Winry’s crusader tanking every mob in sight, he could slaughter things from afar. In the end it was just a bunch of furious clicking and algorythims computing in the background, but it was still satisfying to send a mini blackhole hurtling toward his enemies.

They hadn’t been playing that long when another notification blinked in the corner of the screen. Someone else had actually bothered to join their public game. He read their username.

      “That’s cute.”

      “What’s cute?”

      “The demon hunter who just dropped in.”

      “Really Ed, it’s a bunch of pixels-“

      “No, not the model, dumbass. Their name!”

      “Oh,” she paused, “It sounds kinda scifi.”

DracaenaCinnabari#1173. “It’s Latin, I think.”

      “Oh good, another nerd! I’m sure we’ll take the boss down in style.”

      “Shut it-“

 **-hi-** The message came over the designated party channel. At least they were polite enough to send evidence that they were a breathing human being behind the internet connection.

 **-Heyo.-** He typed back. **–Port to MechGirl, we’ll wait for you.-**

 **-cool-** Came the reply, still lower case and lacking punctuation. As long as they didn’t start shortening words like ‘you’ to ‘u’, Ed wouldn’t feel obligated to strangle them with an ethernet cord. And in a few moments a shiny new player character appeared in their midst. They laid down turrets immediately, and threw out suppressive fire while the two of them carved a path through a horde of demons.

      “Oh, I like this one,” Winry piped in, “He’s not like that last dick who ran into everything and then blamed me for getting killed.”

      “That guy was an ass. Though I admired the creative ways he got around the censors.”

Even if their typed rendition of ‘see you next Tuesday’ had gotten them reported and banned.

 **-What’s your build?-** Ed typed out when they had a lull in the carnage. Sweet, sweet carnage. **–And what’s your name mean?-**

**-hungering arrow/chakram and caltrops/companion/sentry/rain of vengeance-**

The lack of punctuation was starting to get to him and Winry remained that not everyone could be an obnoxious genius on a keyboard. “That’s why we’re Skyping, dummy. I can’t keep up with you.”

 **-it’s a tree-** Ed had almost forgotten the context during the elite fight they’d fallen into. **–they’re pretty neat-**

So it was a scientific name. That made a lot of sense.

      “A tree, huh,” Winry mused, “That’s clever, it sounds more intimidating than it really is.”

      “Probably why they chose it-“

**-what are your names from?-**

      “May I do the honors?”

      “Just don’t die while explaining your terrible puns.”

Ed snorted. He started rapidly hashing the words out, alternating sentences with hotkeyed spells. **–She’s a mechanic. And a girl. She’s not that creative.-**

      “Hey! I can _see_ that, you know!”

 **-I broke my arm when I was younger.-** That wasn’t the whole story, but anonymous tree hugger didn’t need to know that **. –Now it’s full of metal pins. ‘Fullmetal’, get it?-**

 **-haha i do!-** It was hard to tell if they meant it sarcastically or if it was just their typing quirk. Whatever. There wasn’t much time to worry about it; they were staring down Death himself.

      “Let’s kill this bitch.”

 

* * *

 

7:15 and his phone alarm went off, nearly vibrating itself off the bedside table. Ed protested his existence into the pillows. Fuck whoever decided that classes should start before noon. Five minutes later and it buzzed again, and he thought about throwing it out the window.

He could hear Al moving around downstairs, accompanied by the mournful meows of cats that hadn’t eaten for the last six hours. The poor, neglected animals. How dare they be made to wait for breakfast.

And if he wanted to eat before his 9:30, he’d have to get up soon. He didn’t leave the bed so much as ooze forth onto the floor. Clothes. He had to find clothes. And his backpack. And his keys. And the IV drip of caffeine that he so desperately needed.

      “G’morning.”

      “Mmpff.”

He stumbled into the kitchen and nearly kicked the cat that wandered into his path. Al pushed a cup of something hot and, thank the gods of science and art, wasn’t fuckin’ Starbucks.

      “Grmph.”

      “You’re welcome.”

Al was already dressed to go out and earn his premed degree. And he was perpetually covered in cat fur. The amount of lint rollers they had to budget for was obscene, and it never seemed to make a dent.

      “I’ll probably be back late, so don’t worry about me for dinner.” He petted both furry monsters before heading toward the door. “Say hi to Rose for me!”

      “Mmhmm.”

 

* * *

 

It was the first day of classes and there was already an insufferable douchebag in one of them. They’d been there twenty minutes and already the blonde prick was playing the perfect teacher’s pet. He didn’t even want to be there in the first place, some intro level science class required for something or another, so he was more than ready to shove his notebook down the kid’s throat.

      “I hate him,” he growled to Rose later, “Where do these fucking dicks even come from?”

Rose could be counted on to be both sympathetic and brutally honest. She barely glanced up from her sketchbook. “I’m sure you’ll make it.”

      “I’m sure I won’t.”

      “It can’t be that bad,” she continued, pencil scratching on the paper, “It’s only been one day.”

It was going to be a long semester.


	2. Chapter 2

      “So,” Winry ventured, “How is school going?”

      “I’m going to set my microbiology class on fire.” Kind of like how he was setting those skeletons on fire. She went quiet for a moment.

      “…remember that time in the third grade you gave Jamie Brown a black eye?”

      “Yeah?”

      “Please don’t do anything stupid.”

      “I’m not actually going to set anyone on fire,” he muttered, “But if I think it really loud and they happen to spontaneously combust, it won’t be my problem.”

      “ _Edward._ ” her eyes were probably rolling.

      “Are we going to play or talk about my shitty classmates?”

      “Fine.” She sighed heavily, but at least she dropped the subject. “Gonna invited DC?”

      “Nah, he’s not on.” Which was disappointing because he was pretty good. “Maybe he’ll show up at some point.”

 

* * *

 

DracaenaCinnabari didn’t blink online until long after Winry had gone to bed, leaving him to play into the night. He looked at the clock. He probably should have been asleep hours ago.

Fuck it.

**-hi-**

**-Hey. What have you been up to?-**

**-school :c so much work-**

**-I feel that.-**

**-want to do some bounties?-**

**-Sounds good.-**

He was going to regret staying up so late. But it was nice to talk to someone halfway intelligent while indulging in a dumb game. He’d tried to convince the other player to join them on skype, but he had shied away. Yet ‘DC’ could still chatter away in the in-game feed.

**-What’s your major?-**

**-biochem-**

**-Cool. I’m in Engineering and Biotech-**

**-where do u go?-**

**-Amestris University. You?-**

DC went quiet for a long span of time. He wondered if he had crossed some sort of line, though they where still connected and playing, so it couldn’t have been internet problems.

 **-Dude, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.-** Even if they had asked the question in the first place. **-It’s not a big deal-**

 **-its just-** A pause. **-thats kinda freaky-**

**-Why??-**

**-i go there too-**

“No fucking way.” Well, what where _those_ odds?

 **-That’s awesome!-** And he meant it, actually. It would be neat to meet them in person, to know someone locally with shared interests. **-On or off campus??-**

**-on-**

**-That’s unfortunate.-**

**-its not so bad-**

**-So you LIKE obnoxious neighbors and terrible food?-**

**-lmao no-**

**-Good, I was afraid you where freaking nuts.-**

**-thats debatable-**

He found himself laughing. The sleep deprivation would be worth it.

 

* * *

 

Edward Elric was a certified genius. Like, literally could have gone to college when he was sixteen if he hadn’t been such a dumbass as a kid. But that was besides the point.

Microbiology was painfully boring. He’d done the homework for the next two weeks,looked at all the lectures online, and read half the textbook for shits and giggles. It wouldn’t be so bad, as he had planned on sitting at the back the whole time and sending Al kitten gifs, but there was _that kid._

That fucking kid. The one from the first day was _still_ sucking up, still jumping on every question. The most infuriating part was that he was impeccably right. He was brilliant and articulate and good looking—

—no, he definitely wasn’t that. Russell Tringham was shit and he was making Ed look back. _He_ was supposed to be the local prodigy, not this uppity little freshman. He assumed he was a freshman. It didn’t matter, he was still a prick.

So instead he texted Al streams of angry emoji and endeavored to steal Tringham’s spotlight whenever possible. It rapidly dissolved into them yelling at each other from across the lecture hall. The teacher was eating their accidental rivalry up, and went as far as to encourage it. The asshole.

And then it was time for the mid-semester group project. With ‘randomly’ assigned partners. _With Tringham._ Ed made eye contact with him and glared hard. Damn him. Damn him and his really nice eyes. He sulked at the side of the door while he waited for his partner to emerge.

He looked pissed too. At least they had that much in common.

      “I’ll give you my number.” Tringham said dismissively. “Just… text.”

      “Whatever.” God, he just to get out of there as soon as possible. But Ed grudgingly put his number into his contacts under the name ‘stupidass blondie’. It made him feel a little better.

      “When are you free?”

      “What?”

      “When,” Tringham repeated in an annoyed tone, “Are you free?”

He went over his shifts and classes in his head. “Wednesdays.”

      “Okay,” The other put his phone away, “Wednesday then.”

Then he realized that not only was he stuck with his mortal enemy for a dumb project, but now his gaming time was cut out until it was done. Fucking hell. Ed shrugged, pushed his rage down, because he wasn’t so much of a jerk to take it out on someone else. Besides, he had a job to get to.

 

* * *

 

Russell Tringham was going to die. He wanted to scream at the universe for being universally unfair. Hadn’t he gone through enough bullshit to get to this point? Why did he need that headache of an upper classmen foisted onto him too?

And he still had two more classes to slog through.

Ed had finally fled and he could trudge in silence across campus. It was officially fall by then, but thankfully the air was still warm though the leaves had all changed. Soon it would be winter, and everything would be cold and dead, so that leaving his room would be an utter chore.

He’d probably have to do the whole project himself. Already he was laying out and re-writing his schedule it fit it in. There was no way he could expect that slacker to pull his weight; all he did during class was play with his phone and then interrupt Russell. And _only_ Russell. What the ever living fuck had he done to piss off a complete stranger?

It was in Environmental Science that his panic began to rise, hissing and snarling insidious things. He didn’t have the time for this. There was too much on the line for him to falter and fail.

Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> /BUSTS IN HERE LATE WITH STARBUCKS
> 
> SO I've literally had the first three chapters of this written for a year and a half now, but I had some Very Serious health issues come up that sidetracked me (that keep... sidetracking me...) so this project fell by the wayside. But today I got off my ass and typed this up and pls just take it. It's poop but I've kept you all waiting far, far too long.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not overly attached to the Diablo franchise and the Tringhams I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT
> 
> but yeah basically I wanted to write trashy modern day/college AU for my guilty pleasure ships and trope and here we are ahahahaha. I haven't written for this fandom since I was 13. /stares off into the distance
> 
> lyrics are from purity ring
> 
> don't judge me about my life choices


End file.
